During a regular practice session for her beloved music circle, "Wonderlands×Showtime," AIchin HIBIYA feels a strange pang of sadness. She thinks, "Maybe... they'd be better off without me?" It's a tiny, prickly feeling of being left behind while her friends shine brightly.
Noticing her gloom, a quirky upperclassman from her school, Arata JOZAKI, calls out to her. Arata is a brilliant hacker with an obsession for the "Sekai" system. He has a secret—he can access "Minor Sekai," unstable worlds b
In a Corner of Sekai, You Wait for the Stars - A Reversal Drama and Your Dive into the Abyss
The only sound in Arata's room was the clatter of keyboard keys.
The observation records of Minor Sekai pinned to the wall rustled dryly. On his desk, a cracked, modified tablet lay inert and lifeless.
Only the screen of the old laptop he'd booted up instead cast a pale blue glow across the dim six-tatami room.
"Yukito... your logic is always too damn perfect."
Arata's voice was low and hoarse.
He hadn't slept a wink since the night before. His eyes were dry, the light glaring.
Still, his fingers never stopped.
The system lock Yukito had set. It was a cage designed to seal away his code-reading ability. But this cage was deeply linked to Yukito's own server.
In that case, he'd turn the cage against its maker and force his way into the master's house.
Arata began his intrusion into the Vigilnet surveillance network.
He left deliberately clumsy traces behind. As if shouting at the top of his lungs, *I'm right here.*
"Come on, Yukito. Find me."
—— —— ——
Miharu Academy's server room.
Bathed in the cold light of lifeless monitors, Soga Yukito's silver-rimmed glasses reflected the glow icily.
His gloved fingers glided across the touch panel terminal.
*Unauthorized external access detected.*
*Origin: Vicinity of Kamihara City, Tohnogi High School.*
Yukito didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
"To think you'd turn my lock against me and infiltrate every line of Vigilnet."
He traced the intrusion path. The traces were far too crude. Almost as if begging to be found.
"A provocation, then. Jozaki."
Yukito immediately deployed an offensive firewall.
Walls of code to block the intrusion. Layer upon layer of trap programs woven throughout.
But—
Arata's movements suddenly changed.
The clumsy movements from before underwent a complete transformation.
He began seizing and reconstructing parts of the code Yukito had deployed for defense, as if he'd been waiting for it from the very beginning.
"What...?"
For the first time, a faint tremor entered Yukito's voice.
His defensive logic was perfect. There were no holes. But—because of that very perfection, its patterns were easy to read.
Arata had exploited Yukito's meticulous nature to discern the quirks in his defensive code.
*You're always too perfect. That's why your moves are so predictable.*
Arata's message displayed on the screen.
A short sentence, almost mocking.
A warning flashed on Yukito's terminal.
*Administrator privileges temporarily mimicked.*
*Control is being seized.*
"...You stole my privileges."
Yukito bit his lip faintly.
His own overconfidence.
He had underestimated the man called Jozaki Arata.
No—was this what Jozaki Arata was truly capable of?
Yukito stared at Arata's words on the screen.
*Just borrowing your seat for a few minutes. I'm definitely saving her.*
The intense heat packed into that short message.
"...So that's your reason for getting serious."
Something stirred restlessly within Yukito.
—— —— ——
In her apartment.
Hibiya Aichin sat hugging her knees under her futon.
The curtains remained shut. The clock hands pointed to nine in the morning.
In a corner of the room, a rift in the Sekai Gate flickered unstably.
Almost as if mirroring her own emotions.
Her smartphone by the pillow glowed faintly.
A LINE message from Arata.
*Don't run. I'm definitely coming to get you.*
Aichin gently traced the screen with a trembling finger.
"...Senpai."
The letters blurred through her tears.
I already quit the club.
Because of me, everyone ends up in danger.
But—
"I want to see you... I want to see you, Senpai."
Aichin clutched her phone tightly to her chest.
Hesitant as she was, she stood up.
Her face reflected in the mirror was a terrible mess, swollen from crying.
Even so, she headed for the front door on unsteady legs.
"I... I believe in you, Senpai."
She dashed out of the apartment.
Her destination: Kamihara Central Park.
Their secret place.
—— —— ——
Arata was pedaling his bicycle with all his might.
Using the stolen administrator privileges, he had temporarily locked Yukito's terminal. But he had no time.
When he reached Aichin's apartment, her room was empty.
"Dammit!"
Arata slammed his fist against the wall.
His mind went blank. Terror crawled up from his feet.
—If I can't protect her, it's over.
Memories from three years ago flashed back.
An empty, collapsed Sekai.
The wreckage of Carnival Hall.
That loneliness.
That beauty.
And now, he was about to repeat the same mistake.
"...Central Park."
Acting on pure instinct, Arata wrenched the handlebars.
If she was going anywhere, it had to be there.
Beneath the clock tower where the two of them had first discovered Sekai.
—— —— ——
The clock tower in Kamihara Central Park.
Dead leaves floated in the air despite the absence of wind.
Aichin stood rooted at the base of the clock tower.
She didn't even try to hide her tear-streaked, messy face.
Around her, an incomplete Sekai Gate flickered unstably. The air warped, the fountain's water flowed backward, and shadows split into doubles and triples.
Arata came rushing in, completely out of breath.
His silver hair clung to his forehead with sweat.
"...Hibiya!"
An awkward silence hung between them.
Aichin kept her head down, fidgeting with the ends of her bangs.
Arata took a deep breath.
And then.
*Thud.*
Right in front of Aichin, Arata dropped both knees to the ground.
A full dogeza.
"I was wrong."
Aichin looked up, startled.
"Dragging you into danger. Trying to solve everything by myself. It's all my fault."
Arata's voice trembled.
It wasn't his usual sleepy, low tone. It was a serious, desperate voice.
"I found a way to protect you. So—"
Arata raised his head.
Through the gap in the bangs covering his left eye, his deep blue right eye stared straight at Aichin.
"Come with me. One more time."
Inside Aichin, the thread stretched taut suddenly snapped.
"Me too...!"
Aichin crouched down on the spot.
Tears spilled down her face in streams.
"I wanted to see you too, Senpai! I never really wanted to say I was quitting! I wanted to sing with everyone...!"
Aichin sobbed like a child.
Arata stood up and gently placed a hand on her head.
"...I know. I know all of it."
Around them, the Sekai Gate flickered violently.
Responding to Aichin's intense emotions, the incomplete Sekai was about to breach its critical point. The air trembled, gravity distorted. The clock tower's hands began spinning madly.
Arata took Aichin's hand.
"Show me your deepest place. It's scary, but let's go together."
Wiping her tears, Aichin nodded firmly.
With a trembling hand, she squeezed Arata's hand back.
Arata activated the administrator privileges he had stolen from Yukito's terminal.
The space before them tore open with a sound.
A massive Sekai Gate, directly linked to Aichin's deep psyche, became visible.
It was a bizarre sight, like a swirling black sea.
"Let's go."
Hand in hand, the two of them leaped into the vortex of emotion.
—— —— ——
What spread out before them was a pitch-black deep sea.
Sound was dead.
Cold.
Loneliness.
Silence.
And yet, it was endlessly beautiful.
An incomplete Sekai, crystallized from Aichin's self-denial. There was no ground, just the sensation of drifting through dark water. Around them, her feelings of being an "unwanted child" surfaced and vanished as countless bubbles.
"...So this is my Sekai."
For the first time, Aichin saw the deepest part of her own heart.
"Yeah. This is your heart."
Arata slowly reached out and touched the dark water.
Cold. Painful.
All of her pain flowed into him.
"...I'll protect you. Absolutely."
Arata steeled his resolve to accept every last bit of that pain.
—— —— ——
Miharu Academy's server room.
Yukito had lifted the forced lock and reclaimed his privileges.
The monitor recorded the moment Arata and Aichin dove into the deep-layer Sekai.
"...You jumped in, knowing full well the risk of a singularity collapse."
Yukito moved to send an emergency signal through Vigilnet—and stopped his fingers.
The message Arata had left behind.
*You just watch. I'll protect her Sekai.*
Within Yukito, old memories resurfaced.
Three years ago, the day his senpai was caught in a Sekai collapse.
—You're diving in alone again. Just like I used to.
Yukito closed his narrow, sharp eyes behind his glasses.
And then, he chose not to reapply the system lock.
"...I'll place just a little faith in your foolishness."
For the first time, his own ice-cold convictions began to audibly thaw.
The Vigilnet surveillance network quietly watched over the pair's fate.
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